USAID Timor-Leste - Programs - Highlight: Improved Health

Highlight Photo

A potter from the Bili Bala Olaria women’s group adds the finishing touches to a new water filter.

Photo by Osorio Correia, USAID-ET Small Grants Program.

Women Potters Add Safe Drinking Water Option (August 20, 2003)

The women of the Bili Bala Olaria pottery project in Mantutu district are rushing to fill new orders for their water filters. Recently the district Health Department placed an order for 100 of the ceramic filters. It’s more than their usual production rate, but the women plan to ship the full order the end of August.

The pottery project was started by World Vision Inc. to help rehabilitate the local pottery-making industry and to boost the earning power of the women. The filters provide safe drinking water using the locally made ceramic reservoirs and imported filters. USAID-ET has funded the activity since 2002. The current grant of $81,282 will support the project until the middle of September.

The project employs 25 women and 6 men who help them with the heavy work. Before the Health Department order, they had made 50 filters and sold 20 of them. With the new kiln funded by USAID, the potters can make more than 60 filters a month.

Traditionally, pottery-making has been a part of Timorese culture. But ceramic-making facilities were destroyed during the violence in 1999 and most haven’t been reconstructed yet. Before World Vision’s pilot project, some women in Manatuto had started to produce ceramics again, but only on a small scale. Usually they made decorative ceramics for the local market. With World Vision’s help, the women’s group could start its business on a much wider scale.

Ms. Lina Maria Boavide, president of the Bili Bala Olaria women’s group, said that after recent training by a World Vision expert, the women’s pottery-making skills have improved. Now their finished filters are of higher quality. The number of ceramic parts broken during firing has decreased and sales have increased.

(Go to highlights archives)